The four-legged robot Spot® on a promotional tour through Germany
Cyclists stop and pull out their smartphones to take photos and videos, passers-by tap each other and point excitedly in its direction: the red and white four-legged robot Spot® is walking through Berlin and attracting everyone’s attention. He walks through the Brandenburg Gate, down the Straße des 17. Juni and stops in front of the Soviet Memorial, poses with children for photos, and a police patrol stops to check whether everything is going according to plan.
The four-legged robot Spot® is on a promotional tour through Germany, accompanied by his human colleagues from CIBORIUS, the provider of security and service solutions. The company was one of the first to bring the small technology revolution from Boston Dynamics in the USA to Germany. The tour has so far taken him through six cities: Mannheim, Stuttgart, Erfurt, Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main.
The tour caused a furore online. First, a video went viral on the social media platform TikTok, followed by enquiring articles – everyone wanted to know who was accompanying this special four-legged friend on his walk. Numerous media such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung, BILD and RTL.de reported on it.
The use of machines is less about replacing human labour and more about complementing it in a meaningful way. Smart robots with state-of-the-art sensors can take on important tasks in security and building inspection. They measure with pinpoint accuracy and monitor objects continuously without getting tired. Your valuable human colleagues will then be deployed to positions where they have more responsibility.
But why the tour? Andreas CIBORIUS, shareholder of the Group, explains: “Innovations have very different effects on us humans. With the tour, we wanted to see how passers-by react to Spot and explain how the robot works and how it is used for our customers.” The Berlin-based CIBORIUS Group is already delivering today what will be standard tomorrow.
